


Plan B

by ludolefebvre



Category: Eurovision Song Contest RPF
Genre: M/M, duncan is a silly goose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:02:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29535849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ludolefebvre/pseuds/ludolefebvre
Summary: In which Duncan gets stood up on Valentine's Day, but ends up with a better date anyway.
Relationships: Duncan Laurence/Vanja Radovanović
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Plan B

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Balkanika_52](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Balkanika_52/gifts).



“ _Message unable to be delivered._ ”

Duncan stares at his phone for several moments, frowning, before typing another text and pressing ‘send’.

“ _Message unable to be delivered._ ”

He huffs and chews on his lip, switching over to the Tinder app. Maybe Luca was outside of service range. It’s fine, he’ll just message him on here to confirm that-

“ _You can no longer send messages to this user._ ”

Wait, what?

It takes a minute of furious googling for Duncan to determine that, yes, his Tinder date has blocked his number and account. On Valentine’s Day, no less. 

Well, this fucking sucks. What did he even do? He and Luca had been on one date, and it had gone well- at least, Duncan had assumed that it had. It hadn’t been bad enough for Luca to stop texting him, at the very least. They’d been keeping up with each other since, and had even planned an outing for Valentine’s- so, an hour from the present- and now he’s blocked. All dressed up, with nowhere to go.

Duncan lays his head on the cool wood of the small, circular breakfast table, and covers it with his arms. This is more annoying than anything else, he rationalizes. He just wanted something to do, it’s not like he was _actually_ looking forward to it. Though he has to admit that being alone on Valentine’s Day sucks, especially when you’re at the age when all of your peers are getting engaged or married. It’s no longer fun and freeing to be single, and it’s no longer cute or tongue-in-cheek to be bitter about it. It’s sad. He feels sad, sometimes. There are enough times when he’s not sad to make up for the moments when he is, at least.

Duncan hears a key jiggle itself in the lock, followed by the door opening and a bag of groceries being set on the floor. Or maybe it’s a bag of hammers and zip-ties, brought by someone who has stolen an apartment key and come to rob him. He doesn’t lift his head either way, though.

“You look nice,” he hears his roommate remark kindly, “What’s the occasion?” Vanja asks as he locks their front door behind him. Duncan stands to help him put away the contents of his bag- groceries after all, no hammers to be found whatsoever. 

“Thanks for getting more peas,” Duncan says, playing tetris with boxes of chicken nuggets and ice cube trays in order to fit said vegetables into the freezer. 

“You’re welcome. Do I get an answer?”

Duncan sighs, closing the freezer door and looking down at himself. A nicely fitted dark red wool sweater, and the expensive black jeans he’d found on depop a few months back for a fraction of their retail value. The herringbone gold chain he’d received from his uncle on his 18th birthday. 

“I’m not dressed _that_ nice,” he says lamely.

“Okay, no answer, alright,” Vanja quirks his lip and snorts. “But I know you said you were saving those jeans for a special date.” 

“I didn’t say that.”

“Well no, but you asked me if you should.”

“Fine,” Duncan sighs, dropping back onto his chair for dramatic effect. “I was going on a date.” 

“Are you not anymore, then?”

“Well, what do you think? I would tell you if I still was.”

“You didn’t tell me about the last one until I had to come pick you up,” Vanja shrugs. “I can’t read your mind, Duncan.”

Sometimes Duncan kind of thinks that he can, though. 

Like now, when Vanja finishes putting away the last of the groceries, and then turns to him. “Well, there’s no use in wasting the press on those jeans.”

Duncan just blinks at him. “We’re gonna go out? Every place is going to packed with lovebirds, Vanja.”

“What’s the harm in two more, then? Just let me go wash up, and get me directions to the restaurant you were going to, please. I’ll be ready in about ten minutes.” Vanja smiles at him before going down the hall to his bedroom, leaving a flabbergasted Duncan sitting at the table. 

Duncan tries not to let his head spin as several feelings hit him at once, swirling around him like an invisible vortex. If he squints, he can almost see them and pick them apart.

First, confusion. Well, more _surprise._ While Duncan would describe Vanja as a very direct person, he’s not exactly … well, it’s a pretty ballsy move to ask the man that you share a lease with to be your date for Valentine’s Day, and Duncan wouldn’t have pinned it that Vanja was that ballsy- not that he doesn’t have- Duncan quickly determines that he needs to _not_ think about Vanja’s balls, and move on to the next emotion.

Second. Excitement. _Not because of the balls_ , good lord. He has a Valentine’s date after all! And it’s with someone that he knows he can actually hold a conversation with, which is a comfort. He and Vanja have some good conversations. They’re not necessarily what Duncan would call romantic, but he does enjoy them. 

Third- okay, now we need to go back to confusion. What has he missed? Was this a spur of the moment decision that Vanja has made? Or has he liked Duncan for a while now? For that fact- would Duncan date Vanja if he hadn’t considered the man ‘off-limits’ in the first place? Is Vanja his type? 

Vanja re-enters the kitchen, and Duncan chews his lip. If he had to press himself for an answer, Vanja was his type before too, but right now he knows for sure that the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. He’s never seen Vanja wear anything with a v-neck collar before, and Duncan thinks that it suits him nicely. 

“Directions?” Is all Vanja says.

“Uh- shit. Give me a second, sorry,” Duncan scrambles for his phone. Vanja just laughs.

* * *

“Table for two, please. Under ‘Laurence’,” Duncan tells the hostess at the upscale gastropub. 

The hostess looks down at her seating chart, frowning. “Ah- that reservation has … already arrived, it looks like.” She looks up at Duncan and Vanja, and raises an eyebrow.

“That doesn’t make sense,” Duncan purses his lips, “Because I’m Laurence… wait. Hold on,” he mutters, spying a certain head of curls about four or five tables deep into the dining room. 

“Sir, unfortunately you’re not allowed to-”

“I’m just going to talk to him!” Duncan calls over his shoulder, already halfway to Luca’s- well, his- table. Vanja shrugs helplessly, and apologizes quickly to the hostess before following his date through the busy dining room.

“I don’t really care anymore that you ghosted me, but if you found someone better to take to dinner, then you could have at least made your own reservation instead of using _mine_!” Duncan bites out at Luca, who puts down his glass of water before frowning back up at Duncan. 

“Well, maybe I had to find someone else to take to dinner because the person I was going to take is obviously in love with someone else!”

“Hey!” scowls the blonde woman sitting opposite Luca. “I thought we-”

“Wait, in love with someone else?” Duncan cuts her off, hands on his hips. “What are you talking about?”

The people in the neighbouring booth have stopped chewing on their appetizers, guessing that whatever is happening between this group is probably juicier than their short-ribs.

“He’s literally standing right beside you. Your _liefje,_ ” Luca folds his arms. 

“My… roommate.”

“You called him sweetheart when he picked you up from our date! That’s what _liefje_ means!” Luca smacks the table for emphasis, and the woman sighs exasperatedly, picking up her glass of wine and taking a large gulp. 

Duncan’s face flushes. “Oh my god. Luca, that’s what I call my friends. You could have just asked instead of blocking me- ugh, it doesn’t matter.”

“So you want me to leave so that you can eat Valentine’s dinner with your _roommate_?”

“We’re on a date now, actually,” Vanja pipes up. 

“Vanja-”

“Yes?”

Duncan sighs. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“I was thinking you’d never ask, _ljubavi moja_.” Vanja smiles, relieved, as Duncan grabs his hand.

“No- I mean, security’s coming, we have to _go_. Now!”

* * *

“Well, this isn’t how I imagined our first date going,” Vanja muses, “But I can’t say I’m upset about it.”

Takeout containers lay half-empty on the kitchen counter, and a cheesy movie plays on TV. Duncan’s expensive jeans are put away, and both men are in their comfiest pyjamas, cuddling on the couch. Cuddling with someone new can be awkward, Duncan knows this from experience, but it kind of doesn’t feel like he’s cuddling with someone new. That feeling of Vanja maybe knowing how to read his mind comes back, because it would seem that Vanja also knows just how to hold him so that he feels warm and comfortable and loved. 

“Me either,” Duncan says. “How long have you wanted to ask me out, though?”

“I’m not sure,” Vanja says, running his hand through Duncan’s hair gently. Ducan sighs in content, which makes Vanja smile. “I just always had this feeling that you’d say yes if I did.”

“I didn’t say yes, though.”

“Mm, I think being chased out of a restaurant by security because you wanted to have dinner with me counts as a yes, _ljubavi._ ”

  
  
  
  
  



End file.
